Pages

Sunday, 13 December 2015

MAHATMA GANDHI : NATURE CURE

"Gandhiji had very early in life lost faith in modern
medicine. He was convinced that for good health all that was necessary was to
live according to the laws of Nature in regard to diet, fresh air, exercise,
clean surroundings and a pure heart.

Instead of this, man was tempted by modern medical knowledge
to indulge himself to his heart's content, break every law of health and
morality and then seek a cure through commercialized drugs. In revolt from this
Gandhiji sought to discover for himself a sane way of overcoming disease
without the use of medicines.

Besides, medicine tends to treat disease as
merely a matter concerning the body. But Gandhiji viewing man as a whole finds
that disease of the body is chiefly due to mental or spiritual causes and can
be permanently cured only when man's entire attitude to life is changed.

The cure of bodily disease must therefore, according to him,
be sought primarily in the realm of the spirit, in self-discipline and
self-mastery through brahmacharya, in
a thoughtful observance of the laws of Nature in regard to health, and in
bringing about a physical and social environment conducive to the development
of a sound body and a sound mind.

Gandhiji's conception of Nature Cure is therefore much wider
than what is generally understood by that term. It is not merely a cure of
disease after it has occurred but an attempt to prevent disease altogether by
living according to the laws of Nature which, according to him, are the same as
the laws of God.

Accordingly it involves not only the use of earth, water,
air, sunlight, fasts and such like to cure disease, but even more a
transformation of one's entire life —physical, mental, moral and social —
through Ramanama or faith in God, alias His
Law.

Rama-nama is not, therefore, for him mere magic which when
uttered through the lips will work wonders of itself. It signifies, as already
said, a complete change in the heart and mode of life of the individual,
whereby the individual comes to be in tune with the infinite and so obtains
never-failing disease- conquering life and strength from the Source of all
life."